Photo Credit: Alexander Grey
After beating a seemingly frivolous copyright lawsuit, Bad Bunny is stuck covering his own legal costs to the tune of nearly half a million dollars.
*Update, August 22nd: Empawa’s replacement counsel, Edwin M. McPherson of the LA-based boutique McPherson LLP (formerly McPherson Rane LLP), has demanded multiple changes to our coverage. A summary of the exchange is below.
Lo siento, Bad Bunny! After winning a copyright lawsuit that he considers frivolous, the Puerto Rican superstar is now responsible for paying his attorneys’ fees, as a judge has denied his request for nearly half a million dollars in legal costs.
The lawsuit was filed back in May of 2025, centering on Bad Bunny’s “Enséñame a Bailar,” which samples “Empty My Pocket,” a 2019 track by Nigerian artist Dera. But it was quickly shut down by Bad Bunny’s legal team, who maintained that the sample was properly licensed.
Afterward, Bad Bunny’s attorneys sought reimbursement for the star’s legal costs, which amounted to $465,612. They described the lawsuit as “meritless from the beginning” and accused Empawa Africa Music Services Limited of seeking an “undeserved, multi-million-dollar settlement.”
But in a ruling issued on Thursday, August 20, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II denied their request, stating that Empawa’s lawsuit over the song was “objectively reasonable” but lacked evidence of ulterior motives. The federal judge noted that Bad Bunny did use the sample in question, and his legal team refused to provide proof of licensing prior to litigation.
“Defendants offer little besides conjecture to support their allegation that Empawa brought this action with ill-motive,” wrote Judge Wright. “The court cannot fault Empawa for declining to trust defendants counsels’ word.”
Further, Judge Wright wrote that granting attorneys’ fees “would send the wrong message to parties seeking to protect their intellectual property” and could possibly have a chilling effect on legitimate copyright lawsuits moving forward.
“Here, where Empawa advances seemingly meritorious claims, where Defendants admit that they sampled the copyrighted material, and where no conclusive evidence has emerged demonstrating that defendants had permission to use the sample, the imposition of attorneys’ fees would send the wrong message to parties seeking to protect their intellectual property by testing meritorious claims in open court,” the judge wrote.
Empawa’s attorney, Ed McPherson, told the press that he was “extremely pleased” with the judge’s decision. An attorney for Bad Bunny did not immediately return media requests for comment.
*Update, August 22 (con’t): The emails from the aforementioned Edwin M. McPherson include a demand to remove the word ‘beating’ to describe the case outcome, which was a dismissal with prejudice in favor of Bad Bunny and multiple other defendants that followed the ‘abandonment’ of the case by the various plaintiffs in March (as described by the presiding US District Judge Otis D. Wright II in the matter).
Earlier Empawa reps Manatt Phelps & Phillips, LLP filed an ex parte application to withdraw from the case in December, citing irreconcilable differences with their clients. Empawa subsequently did not appear for key court dates in the case (effectively ‘abandoning’ the case).
Regarding McPherson’s claim of victory in the earlier matter, it appears that song credits were indeed modified at some point in the case, and the recent demand for legal fees was rejected as DMN has already reported at length. McPherson also demanded changes to the ‘seemingly frivolous’ description of the complaint above, explaining that “the judge determined very definitively, that this case was NOT frivolous – seemingly or otherwise,” though the language is clearly not a statement of fact.
Throughout all of our coverage, DMN welcomes all constructive feedback. We actively update our stories when encountering important and relevant information, and strive to provide an accurate, impartial version of the events transpiring.
